Investments In Movie Memorabilia Drive Up Prices

May 28, 1989|By ALJEAN HARMETZ, New York Times News Service

When a poster from the 1939 movie The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes sold for $4,000 at an auction this month, it was a clear sign that collecting movie posters has moved from hobby to high-stakes passion.

``There has been a dramatic rise in prices in the last three months,`` said Edwin Neal, a former archivist of the David O. Selznick collection at the University of Texas who owns the Texas Movie Emporium in Austin.

``I sold It Happened One Night for $4,000 three months ago. I could get $5,000 right now. What`s new is that doctors and lawyers are buying big-ticket items to put in a portfolio. They say, `I want to spend $25,000. You tell me what to buy.```

The prices for movie memorabilia, other than posters, have shot up dizzyingly as well, with the highest prices going to eccentric or unique items.

A pair of Dorothy`s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz sold for $165,000 at Christie`s last June. At the auction held by Camden House in Los Angeles recently, eight credit and membership cards belonging to Joan Crawford sold for $1,400 and a jockey shirt worn by James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy for $4,500.

A copy of the book Gone With the Wind signed by most members of the movie cast brought $20,000.

Collecting posters, like collecting stamps, is less flashy. But posters that could be bought for $5 a few years ago now cost $50, and posters that brought $500 now bring $2,000.

At the Camden House auction, unexceptional posters for How Green Was My Valley, Bhowani Junction, A Hard Day`s Night and For Me and My Gal ranged from $225 to $675.

``The going trend is not stocks and bonds but fine art,`` said Denis Clark, a major poster wholesaler who owns Movie Madness in Cincinnati.

Some posters are bought because of the artists.

Both Al Hirschfeld and Norman Rockwell did posters in the 1930s, and Drew Struzan, who draws most of the posters for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, is considered hot now.

But the highest prices are brought by the best-loved movies.

``Guys from Zurich and guys from Oshkosh have the same want list,`` Neal said. ``It`s not the star. It`s the film. I`ve got a Jimmy Stewart poster from a 1956 western for $15. A Jean Harlow poster from Girl From Missouri will bring $800. A Jean Harlow poster from Red Dust can be sold for $8,000.``

Stagecoach, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, the Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire musicals, the heartwarming Frank Capra comedies, The Maltese Falcon, King Kong, and The Wizard of Oz are at the top of most lists.

Clark sold a half-dozen Maltese Falcons for $200 to $800 apiece four years ago, and says he could sell the same posters for $1,500 to $2,500 today.